2024 Toyota Prius Prime Best Car

Related Forbes Story: https://www.forbes.com/sites/kbrauer/...
Toyota Prius Prime Road Test Video:    • 2023 Toyota Prius Prime Review  

Hi, this is Karl Brauer and I’m here to talk to you about what is the best car you can buy today for peak personal transportation in 2024 In case you can’t guess by where I’m standing, I believe that the 2024 Toyota Prius Prime is the best automobile you can buy today when you take everything into account.

We’re going to go into the details and see how I came to that conclusion, but first things first. I feel like there’s a lot of back-and-forth about what we’re all supposed to be driving now, and I think if you do some analysis -- and I’m going to walk you through that -- you’re going to realize that plug-in hybrids have the advantage when it comes to drivetrain types, and this is the best plug-in hybrid. And in today’s world, this car makes more sense than pretty much any other type of car if you’re just looking at cost-effective, high value personal transportation. So let’s get into it.

We’ve all been seeing and hearing a lot of pressure to get ourselves into electric vehicles as soon as possible. In fact, Jim Farley, the CEO at Ford, recently said that despite being a lifelong petrol head, he has totally fallen in love with electric vehicles. And he likes them not because of political pressure, he likes them because of how they drive. And I get that because electric vehicles do have some appealing driving dynamics. I appreciate that Jim Farley is not pushing something just because it’s the popular narrative. That he hopefully is suggesting people buy these products because they make the most sense for them. I’d like to think that any CEO who is producing consumer products is producing them and telling his consumers to buy them because he feels like they make the most sense and that they represent the best value for that person.

And that’s what we’re going to start to get into really is for this discussion. I’m going to focus tremendously on value. Value isn’t the highest priority for most consumers when they’re buying a car, but I think most consumers, and certainly I, would suggest that it should be the highest priority. So we’re going to talk about this potential powertrain technology battle, and which car makes the most sense in terms of value. Because at the end of the day, when you’re buying the second most expensive thing in your lifetime, typically after your housing it is your car, value should be your guiding principle. And it’s not going to be the guiding principle for people who are wealthy. They’re going to buy whatever they want and they should buy whatever they want. I love the idea that we’re gonna buy what we want and not be forced to buy what we should.

But I’m just saying that a lot of people actually want to know "What should I buy? I’m using my logical, right side brain. I’m trying to be cost-effective in personal transportation. I’m looking for high value in a car. What should I buy?"

And when it comes to value I want to help define that because it’s kind of a squishy concept. I believe there are six sub-categories that help define a car's value. They are as follows in this order of priority:
1. Reliability
2. Safety
3. Comfort
4. Flexibility
5. Performance
5. Ownership Cost

Let's jump into each one and talk about them. Reliability is critical because that’s what every car is supposed to do, right? It’s supposed to move you around when you want it to move you around. And if it can’t do that, it’s a really heavy, fancy paperweight, and I have no patience in today’s world with cars that are not reliable. So reliability is the number one thing that a car has to deliver. Number two is safety.